Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-11-03

Learned and become KNOWN some
means of freeing the soil from the ex-
cess of water were quickly devised
and the practice of drainage was
adopted.
Drainage is effected by means OF sur
face channels and pipes laid under the
surface. The former is very inferior
| method, because it carries on the water
as soon as it falls, together with all the
plant food it has gathered in its passage
through the air. and with whatever 1t
takes up from the surface of the soil az
| it rushes over it. The water is lost to
the soil. considerable quantity OF fer
tility gathered from the atmosphere,
invaluable nitric acid and ammonia is
lost with it. and the soil Itself is de-
prived of whatever is soluble and can
be washed away. This kind OF drain
age is evidently a very great waste,
and, on the whole. perhaps. leaves the
crop worse off than if there were no
drains and the water was permitted 10
percolate slowly through the soil.
Underground drainage. on the other
hand, is not only a means of removing
the surplus of water which falls upon
the land, but it brings to the soil and
leaves in it all that is gathered by the
rain in its passage through the air. and
all that is gathered from the air as the
yapors rise from the land and the ocean
and float hither and thither. finally
| forming clouds which battle freely in
the atmosphere and absorb all the am
monia which rises from the decaying
matter in the soil or from the myriads
of animals and the vast quantity of fuel
which is consumed upon the earth, as
well as the nitric acid which is formed
so freely during every thunderstorm by
the action of the lightning upon the
air. All this invaluable plant food.
amounting, as it is believed, to ten
pounds or more upon every acre OF the
earth's surface, is brought down by the
vain and is carried into the soil, and
the soil seizcs upon it and holds it until
the growing crops can make use of it as
food. The water. also highly charged
with carbonic acid absorbed from the
air, exerts soluble effect upon the
sell and dissolves various mineral sub
stances which are needed by the crops
and fits them for food for the plants.
The surplus water, indeed, passes
down to the drains, carrying some lit
tie plant food with it, (but very small
quantity rs compared with that which
is carried off by the surface drains).
and escapes to the streams on its way
to its birthplace, the ocean. 1t may be
that it might be caught and held for
future and other use; but the farmer
has got all he possibly can from it, and
the soil is freed from all injurious eff
fecte by its retention.
In its passage through the soil and
its escape by the drains it (ths water)
serves another valuable service. 1t
acts, in fact, as a vast air pump, fore
ing out the stagnant, exhausted air
from the soil as it enters. and as it
sinks in the soil and enters the drains
and flows through them it draws in
fresh air loaded with vital energies and
active forces. which exert most BEN
eficial effect upon the land in setting
free for the roots Il large quantity of
valuable food Thus, a constant circu-
lation of the lifc-blood of the soil oc-
ours, vitclizing it and enabling it to
support luxuriant growth where be-
fore there was sterility and barrenness-
the air is breathed in by the
leaves and enables them to perform
most important function in plant life,
yet we can not doubt that large
quantity of air also enters the plants
by the roots, and that large quantity
Of the carbonaceous and perhaps some
of the heterogeneous substances of the
crops are thus derived, and if this is so.
is thus gained is also due in
great measure to the removal of the
surplus water by the drains and the
results of this removal of the water
upon the conditions and we may also
say the functions of the soil. Henry
iSLecnaL an AZ L Times